“You had no way of knowing who Henry truly was,” she protested, such tenderness for him in her eyes that he almost had to look away.
“I should have asked,” he insisted, hating himself for having wasted these last months they could have had together.
“I should have told you.”
He stared down at her, all gorgeous and flushed in his bed, her chestnut hair unbound on his pillow, lush cream and sweet, decadent pinks. She was more beautiful than any painted goddess he’d ever seen. More glorious than Venus.
His.
Somehow, astoundingly, she washis. And he would earn her love, one day at a time.
“I’ll make it up to you,” Everett vowed. “I swear, my love.”
She trailed her fingertips along his jaw, sending heat arrowing directly to his already straining cock. “Just make love to me.”
That was what she wanted, so that was what he would give her. Pleasure. As much as he possibly could. More than she could bear.
He settled between her parted thighs and found her wet and ready, so perfect. He licked and sucked, savoring the sweet perfume of her, headier than the scent she dabbed at her wrists and throat. Musky and sweet, like Sybil herself. Everett lapped at her, devoting himself to her every moan and swift inhalation of breath. Her hips pumped into him, and he couldn’t resist sinking a finger deep into her waiting sheath as he suckled her clitoris. Sybil found her release with a shuddering cry.
“I love you,” he said as he kissed his way back up her body, punctuating each brush of his lips with the words he’d been too terrified to say. “I love you.” He kissed along the curve of one breast, took her nipple into his mouth. “I love you.”
Her fingers threaded through his hair, holding him to her as her body undulated beneath his. Everything between them felt new and different. This was the first time they made love in truth, and he wanted to leave an indelible mark upon them both. To banish what had come before and begin anew, from this moment forward.
He kissed the hollow between her breasts. “I love you.”
Kissed the space over her rapidly beating heart.
“I love you.”
Kissed his way up her throat, to her ear. “I love you.”
He nuzzled her temple, reveling in the way she felt beneath him, so soft and warm, her sleek curves perfectly fitted to his body. “My God, how I love you.”
“Show me,” she said, hooking a leg around his hip and welcoming him.
The glide of his cock along her wet folds was sheer torture. He groaned as he took her mouth and guided himself to her entrance. One thrust of his hips, and he sank into the tight, wet clasp of her sheath. She clamped down on him and nearly squeezed him out, but he pumped his hips once and he was fully seated. Surrounded by her heat, by her.
It was a celebration, a reunion. They were alive. No more secrets between them. Nothing but love, pure and true.
He took the peak of her breast into his mouth and sucked hard as he thrust into her again and again, and Sybil arched her back, clamping down on him as another release tore through her. They made love together, bodies moving in unison, faster, harder, deeper, until everything else fell away and there was only the acute bliss of pleasure as he sank inside her one last time and filled her with his seed.
She wrapped her arms around him and held him close when he would have withdrawn, whispering the only words he ever needed to hear again into his ear. “I love you too.”
CHAPTER 21
The flames were coming.
Closer, closer.
Hotter, too.
Terror clamped down on her.
She felt them on her face, searing her skin. Burning her alive.
Verity attempted to run, but her legs became tangled in her skirts. She tried to scream as she tumbled forward into the maw of the fiery blaze, but no sound emerged. It was burning her up. Turning her to ash. There was no way to escape. She was surrounded by the roaring fire on all sides. Walls were crashing down, beams falling.
But thenhewas there.
